Hotel kill switches
- Thread starter KerryLSG
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
There is nothing in the NEC that I am aware of n that issue
- Location
- Placerville, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Retired PV System Designer
And energy codes (the most likely reason for a kill switch or occupancy switch) vary enough from state to state that you really need to ask someone who knows your state's requirements.
The hotel management might well want to be able to turn off all lights in the room from one switch to make it easier for housekeeping.
The IECC requires a master control device at them main entry.
I believe I've only ever seen this at one hotel I stayed at. If I remember right, I think it was a key card swipe that used the door key card. Not sure why?? If someone leaves with the key card, and the lights time out, I guess you have to sit in the dark.
And I'm really not sure why some very new hotels I've seen don't have a master control switch. It can be a real pain to walk around the room and turn off all the individual lamps on the way out.
www.energycodes.gov will usually tell you your states requirements.
I believe I've only ever seen this at one hotel I stayed at. If I remember right, I think it was a key card swipe that used the door key card. Not sure why?? If someone leaves with the key card, and the lights time out, I guess you have to sit in the dark.
And I'm really not sure why some very new hotels I've seen don't have a master control switch. It can be a real pain to walk around the room and turn off all the individual lamps on the way out.
www.energycodes.gov will usually tell you your states requirements.
wbdvt
Senior Member
- Location
- Rutland, VT, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer, PE
I know that is common in Europe in all the hotels I have stayed at. When you open the door, you place your card key in a receptacle that then allows the lights, etc to be turned on. This is a great energy saver as when you leave you take the card with you and the lights are turned off.
kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
There has to be more to it then that. Maybe occupancy sensors? Nobody is going to swipe the card when they leave to tell the system it can turn off the lights, well at least 99% of users won't do that. The kids however will have fun swiping the card and turning the lights off if they are just going to the vending machines, the pool, etc. but are leaving some others behind.
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
an approved device for this purpose is designed to have the room access card
inserted into it, to enable the lighting.
guess what? a business card, or piece of paper will do the same thing.
there's just a microswitch in the slot, and sliding anything in there works.
i'm doing a hotel, for lighting certification, that uses these. every single
one of them has a business card stuffed into the slot, so the lights stay on.
rooms without the slot have occupancy sensors. occupancy sensors make
way more sense.
while it isn't a title 24 thing with regards to lighting, there's a company
that makes a wireless switched plug to control the air conditioner.
an occupancy sensor lets the air conditioner run when the room is occupied.
a sensor on the door, turns the A/C on full when the door is opened on an
unoccupied room.
you walk in, and the A/C is blowing hard. you leave, and 15 minutes later,
it goes off. Saves a huge amount of money, for the hotel.
and you pay $150 a night for a room that is always hot when you enter it.
ggunn
PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Occupation
- Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
That's not the way it works. When you come into the room you have to insert your key card in the reader and leave it there for the lights to work (when you open the door a timer lets the lights work for a couple of minutes). When you leave the room, you take your key card and the lights go off after the timer times out. I stayed in a hotel in Italy a couple of years ago that had this system in place.
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